This thread is essentially my teenage years in writing form. id, 3D Realms and Apogee are 3 names I especially associate with my teenage years. Wolf 3D started my love for first person games/shooters years and years ago.
I remember being 11/12 years old and up to that point I had played mostly consoles or Atari computers. Something like Rescue on Fractalus was my very first experience playing games when I was around 3-4 years old. Anyway years later on PC my dad says to me 'Son, I've got a game for you to try' and it was Wolf 3D. I was fucking amazed by it. What's this perspective ? Ooooh a gun. Screaming Nazis! I played the shareware of Wolf 3D religiously and then my dad got me the full game and I played that to death as well. Fighting and Killing Mech/Mini Gun Hitler is still one of my favourite experiences in a game "Eva, Auf Wiedersehen!"
Then of course Doom came out and again my dad says to me "I've got a new game called Doom, the guys who made Wolf 3D made it!"
Needless to say I near enough shat myself with excitement and when I got to sit down and play it my mind was blown even more. Demons! Awesome shotgun! Hell! Keycards! Needless to say I spent most days playing that too and then when Doom 2 came along I poured even more time into that. Doom 2 is a game I especially bonded with my dad over, he's always been into PC games/PC building and that was the game where I got my own PC to play it instead of always playing on his. That's probably why PC gaming is so special to me as that's very much how me and my dad have bonded over the years.
Another very special game as part of my childhood was Rise Of The Triad, I actually got the shareware version of that from a cover disk. I think it was one of the first FPS which used dual guns and of course I loved the shit out of it. Cool traps, gibs, "No! Don't Shoot!", Dog mode and bouncy pads. It's part of the reason I'm so excited about the new game
But yet so many games from my PC gaming childhood related to Apogee, 3D Realms, Interplay and loads of others. Commander Keen, Hexen, Hexen 2, Heretic, Shadow Warrior, Redneck Rampage (with swear pack "I'm gonna fuck yee!").
It's also the era that introduced me to my favourite developer Monolith Productions - Blood (ok I know that was mostly 3D Realms and Blood 2 was a disappointment), Noone Lives Forever 1 and 2, Shogo, Get Medievil etc (up to and including their modern stuff which I've loved as well)
Thinking back actually it's amazing to think how much of my gaming life is PC centric despite playing every console, handheld etc. I wouldn't want to think of the hours I've spent playing games
TLDR - I realise I've written essentially a blog post about my PC childhood.